[Seren]

Hi,

I'm new here and I don't know if this is the appropriate forum for this subject, but here goes:

I sometimes, with unpredictable frequency, get what I would call "artefacts" in my digital photos. These usually take the form of small spheres, varying in size and brightness, from one to many in a single photo. I also have one photo with an unexplained shaft of light.

I'll try uploading a couple of shots. No, that didn't work.

Can anyone offer an explanation, please?

Seren

[Petographer]

Let me first welcome you too Shuttertalk. The friendliest forum on the web.

The artefact's could be caused by a few things but like you said we need to get a photo posted. The most common one that I can think of is when a flash is used and a lot of little fairies seem to be all over the image. this is caused be the combination of the rather intense flash from the on board camera flash and dust in the air. The dust is captured on the photo as the flash in almost in the same plane as the lens and therefore catches the reflections. To avoid this means not using the flash if at all possible or use an external flash if you have the hotshoe.

Hope to see some images soon. Your photos need to be 150kbs and under in order to upload. Just use the img upload button after resizing your photo in an editing program.

[shuttertalk]

Hi Seren, and welcome!

I get those artefacts sometimes too, using flash, as Peto said. Try cleaning your lens or filters too, as any smears or dust there will exacerbate the effect.

[slejhamer]

Dust bunnies!

[Puck]

While dust specks could be an explanation, your description leads me to think the culprit is lens flare. Were the pictures in question taken with the camera pointed in the direction of the sun or other bright light source? I've never had dust problems but I've had lens flare when I wasn't careful where my light source was. Here's one article I ran across on the web on lens flare. I'm sure there are numerous others.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutoria...-flare.htm